Such a connection element emerges from DE 43 17 498 A1. The suspended track running rails there are made essentially from a U-profile whose leg ends are angled against each other while leaving a central passage forming the running surfaces. In order to connect two running rails to each other at their ends, a connector is used that has essentially the same cross section as the running rails, but surrounds these running rails. A fixed connection that is secured against undesired extraction or spreading of the connected running rails is achieved in that the ends of the running rails have boreholes that are aligned with boreholes in the connector. Then machine screws are screwed through the aligned boreholes and these screws prevent slippage or extraction of the running rails. Indeed, this type of connection represents a secure connection, but the assembly is complicated. Thus, the boreholes in the running rails must be aligned with the boreholes in the connector and then the machine screws are screwed in with a tool. Indeed, the screws can be pre-screwed for the production of the connector, but during transport of the connector there is then the risk that, due to impacts on the projecting screws, these screws will fall out or the threading of the screws or of the boreholes will be damaged. Also, a tool must always be carried along for tightening the screws.
There is likewise the possibility that the connector has machine screws that are screwed blind onto the C-rail and are fixed by lock nuts. That is, in this case the rail does not have boreholes in which the screws of the connector engage. The C-rails are here only clamped. A disadvantage here is that, if the screws are tightened too much, the legs of the C-rails bend too far inward and thus the running room for the car guided therein becomes too small and the car can become jammed therein. With insufficient tightening of the screws, the connection can become loose during operation. Also, tools are required here to create the connection.
To allow a tool-free connection of the running rails, WO 2007/068897 A1 provides an alternative connector and an alternative running-rail system. There, the ends of the running rails in the longitudinal direction have an elevated section that is broken by a recess shortly before its end. The running rails are then pushed into a connector that has a corresponding cross section. In the connector, slots are provided that then correspond to the recesses and through which two connection brackets of a plug element could be passed, in order to create the connection. This plug element has a spring bracket that is adapted essentially to the shape of the connector and that comes to lie on the outside of the connector. When the plug element is inserted completely into the connector and through the recesses into the running rails, the spring bracket of the plug element snaps into the outer contours of the connector, in order to secure it against falling out. This does indeed allow a tool-free assembly of a running-rail system, but has the disadvantage that, in addition to the connector, another plug element is necessary that must be adapted as precisely as possible to the shape of the connector. In addition, the recesses in the running rails must be moved precisely into agreement with the slots of the connector during the assembly of the running-rail system, so that the brackets of the plug element can be inserted both through the slots of the connector and also through the recesses in the running rails.
WO 2005/089691 relates to a closure coupling for two rails of a suspended rail track. For this purpose, at the ends of two rails, there are first or second coupling parts that are provided for coupling with each other when the two rails are aligned with each other. Each of the coupling parts has a hinged closure part, and the first coupling part has a closure bolt part with a beveled end that can be moved into engagement with a pin projecting from the closure part of the second coupling part, wherein the closure bolt part is designed to engage in a recess of the closure part, wherein both closure parts are activated by shifting of the closure bolt part. This is disadvantageous in that the secure, fixed, and detachable connection of two rails is allowed only with a complicated, expensive, and laborious closure coupling.
DE 27 41 096 A1 relates to a rail system, in particular, for two-track suspended rail vehicles for transporting passengers, essentially comprising box-shaped track carriers arranged with expansion joints in their longitudinal extent with tracks for load-bearing wheels or guide rollers of running gear operating within this carrier, wherein the track carriers are provided with a slot for the passage of suspension devices connecting the running gear to the cabin. In order to bridge the expansion joints arranged between the track carriers in the simplest and most spatially compact way possible, wherein the bridging should automatically and continuously compensate for changes in length of the carriers, the expansion joint between two track carriers is bridged in the region of the tracks for the load-bearing wheels or guide rollers by a triangular filler piece that is inserted into each of these tracks and that lies with its inclined surfaces against corresponding inclined surfaces formed on the track carriers under the force of a spring.
DE 33 43 075 C2 relates to a suspended rail track, in particular a suspended monorail track, comprising a profiled running rail that can be suspended with suspension attachment means and cars in which the profiled running rail is made from an elongated hollow body and a continuous longitudinal slot for holding the suspension attachment means. The suspension attachment means are made from a metal bracket with an insertion point with subsequently adjacent barbs that project laterally from the bracket plane and that are both arranged within a T-shaped, elongated hollow body used as a profiled running rail, wherein the barbs engage behind webs that are arranged on the side of a continuous longitudinal slot in the terminal side of the T-shaft of the profiled running rail. The assembly of the profiled running rail on the suspension attachment means already mounted on the cover side is realized only by insertion of the insertion point of the suspension attachment means into the longitudinal slot of the profiled running rail and further upward pressing of the profiled running rail in which the two side surfaces of the T-shaft are inclined outward, slide past the outer surfaces of the barbs, and can be subsequently snapped together again, so that the webs engage behind the barbs. Here, it is not possible to simply remove the insertion point again from the longitudinal slot of the profiled running rail.